Astronomers Successfully Predict Appearance of Supernova

schwit1 writes: For the first time ever astronomers have been able to predict and photograph the appearance of a supernova, its light focused by the gravitational lensing caused by a galaxy and the dark matter that surrounds it: "The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the image of the first-ever predicted supernova explosion. The reappearance of the Refsdal supernova was calculated from different models of the galaxy cluster whose immense gravity is warping the supernova's light." What makes this significant is that the prediction models were based on the theory of gravitational lensing and required the presence of dark matter to work. That they worked and were successful in predicting the appearance of this gravitationally bent light (bent by the dark matter it passed through) is a very strong confirmation of both concepts.

Comments

Prediction of What?

[tinkerton]

They didn't predict that a supernova was about to happen. They'd already seen the supernova happening in its ghost image created by gravitational lensing. They predicted where another image of the supernova would turn up.

Re: Dark Matter testable predictions

[Anonymous Coward]

That it obeys the rules that dark matter would have to obey, and disobeys every theorem of mond that has ever been proposed.

Duh.

What else did you think a test and validation of a theory would incur? Cookies and presents for all?